No Grice: Computers that Lie, Deceive and Conceal

In the future our daily life interactions with other people, with computers, robots and smart environments will be recorded and interpreted by computers or embedded intelligence in environments, furniture, robots, displays, and wearables. These sensors record our activities, our behavior, and our interactions. Fusion of such information and reasoning about such information makes it possible, using computational models of human behavior and activities, to provide context- and person-aware interpretations of human behavior and activities, including determination of attitudes, moods, and emotions. Sensors include cameras, microphones, eye trackers, position and proximity sensors, tactile or smell sensors, et cetera. Sensors can be embedded in an environment, but they can also move around, for example, if they are part of a mobile social robot or if they are part of devices we carry around or are embedded in our clothes or body. \ud \ud Our daily life behavior and daily life interactions are recorded and interpreted. How can we use such environments and how can such environments use us? Do we always want to cooperate with these environments; do these environments always want to cooperate with us? In this paper we argue that there are many reasons that users or rather human partners of these environments do want to keep information about their intentions and their emotions hidden from these smart environments. On the other hand, their artificial interaction partner may have similar reasons to not give away all information they have or to treat their human partner as an opponent rather than someone that has to be supported by smart technology.\ud \ud This will be elaborated in this paper. We will survey examples of human-computer interactions where there is not necessarily a goal to be explicit about intentions and feelings. In subsequent sections we will look at (1) the computer as a conversational partner, (2) the computer as a butler or diary companion, (3) the computer as a teacher or a trainer, acting in a virtual training environment (a serious game), (4) sports applications (that are not necessarily different from serious game or education environments), and games and entertainment applications

Risk, rescue and emergency services: The changing spatialities of Mountain Rescue Teams in England and Wales

This paper considers the role of the emergency services in society and, in particular, their role in controlling, mitigating and resolving risk. Using a network approach, Mountain Rescue Teams are studied in order to examine how people, agencies, animals, technology and knowledge are deployed to resolve emergencies. The paper traces the changing nature of risk in rural places and the impact of state regulation on the deployment, spatialities and practices of the emergency services. In doing so, it argues that greater attention should be paid to the emergency services by geographers. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Prosper at Sea: A Proactive Approach to Safety

Masteroppgave i psykologiMAPSYK360INTL-SVMAPS-PSYKINTL-KMDINTL-HFINTL-MEDINTL-PSYKINTL-JUSINTL-M

On driver behavior recognition for increased safety:A roadmap

Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADASs) are used for increasing safety in the automotive domain, yet current ADASs notably operate without taking into account drivers’ states, e.g., whether she/he is emotionally apt to drive. In this paper, we first review the state-of-the-art of emotional and cognitive analysis for ADAS: we consider psychological models, the sensors needed for capturing physiological signals, and the typical algorithms used for human emotion classification. Our investigation highlights a lack of advanced Driver Monitoring Systems (DMSs) for ADASs, which could increase driving quality and security for both drivers and passengers. We then provide our view on a novel perception architecture for driver monitoring, built around the concept of Driver Complex State (DCS). DCS relies on multiple non-obtrusive sensors and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for uncovering the driver state and uses it to implement innovative Human–Machine Interface (HMI) functionalities. This concept will be implemented and validated in the recently EU-funded NextPerception project, which is briefly introduced

Innovating Pedagogy 2015: Open University Innovation Report 4

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This fourth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. We proposed a long list of new educational terms, theories, and practices. We then pared these down to ten that have the potential to provoke major shifts in educational practice, particularly in post-school education. Lastly, we drew on published and unpublished writings to compile the ten sketches of new pedagogies that might transform education. These are summarised below in an approximate order of immediacy and timescale to widespread implementation

The Benefits of Dogs

The purpose of this paper is to identify the benefits of dogs. Whether you need a dog for the benefit of having a companion or for physiology benefits. A dog provides love, support, friendship, and assistance to any of our required necessities. A brief discussion about the history of dogs and their responsibilities to the owner will be discussed throughout the paper. A dog is a loyal companion and partner to their owner. They love to aide their benefactor and thrive for love and affection. The next topic section will demonstrate how service dogs can aide in the replacement of the loss of senses and research will demonstrate how a dog can be used to provide a service to resolve the loss of health functions; as well as substantial evidence on how a dog can provide the emotional support and services needed by owners with disabilities. It will continue discussing how dogs have benefited society in health fields, police, military, rescues and during natural disasters. Dogs have saved lives, provided health care needs, performed services for people with disability needs, helped provide for their owner, and have been a care given companion full of love and support

Design of an Automated Vehicle Detection System for Bicycles: Fireworks Cycling Sensor

Abstract This report explores the necessity for increased cyclist safety in urban settings, leading to the birth of a product which aims to drastically reduce the risk of accidents while heightening the sense of safety overall. The project outlines and details the product development process of a consumer-friendly vehicle detection system, with a holistic scope which includes technical rapid prototyping and coding, team dynamics, decision making process, and change management. Two formal prototypes were developed before a functional final product was identified and constructed, each iteration drastically improving practicality and efficiency of detection. The final product underwent extensive testing in both simulated and natural environments with a maximum range of 45 meters, with a field of view of 1.28 degrees. These parameters were critical in defining the positional angle of the sensor on the bicycle frame. Paired with an LED strip along the top tube of the bicycle frame, the sensor system accurately detects vehicles approaching from the cyclist’s blind spot, and feeds back via the lighting and color of the LED’s to both the cyclist and driver, in both light and dim settings

Reason and Rationality in the Post-Pandemic Era

This paper investigates human reason’s proper function and role in the post-pandemic era. Sections 1 and 2 analyze recent literature on Kahneman’s dual processing theory and Hugo Mercier’s and Dan Sperber’s (M&S) interactionalist approach toward human reason. Kahneman’s theory cannot explain how System 2 is still prone to make serious mistakes, and M&S provide a more plausible alternative: reasoning is all intuitive. Humans can intuit reasons for their beliefs and intuitions. But more importantly, reason is the metarepresentational ability to evaluate the strengths or weaknesses of reasons and arguments. Reason, through the process of evolution, is fundamentally used for justification and argumentation. Section 3 outlines that the individual can summon reason to justify an established moral intuition. Argumentation helps interlocutors self-reflect on political and moral beliefs, opinions, and intuitions, influencing people to change their minds. Section 4 introduces the internal cognitive limitations that accompany human reason and rationality: confirmation bias influences the individual reasoner to look for reasons to support their own intuitions and beliefs with little regard for the strength or reliability of those reasons. Reasoning in like-minded groups without dissenting opinions, called groupthink, gives off the impression of sound reasoning. However, this only exacerbates reason’s flaws and limitations. Additionally, willful and strategic ignorance, i.e., ignoring certain aspects of reality on purpose, which is used as a coping and convenience mechanism, can lead to negative real-world consequences if used improperly or excessively. People who denied the existence of the Covid-19 virus, objected to the vaccine’s efficacy, and doubted the results of the 2020 presidential election are topical examples of confirmation bias, groupthink, and willful or strategic ignorance influencing contemporary American society and politics. Section 5 identifies the MAGA movement’s effect on public reason. Specifically, the movement’s “Great American Utopia” mythology is used to justify radical political change and totalitarianism. Section 6 discusses how the internet, particularly social media, stifles the spread of knowledge and contributes to a decline of critical thinking in American society by exploiting reason’s deficiencies. Accordingly, it also emphasizes how these exacerbated flaws negatively affected American culture during the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 US Presidential Election. Section 7 discusses possible solutions for improving public reasoning, such as focusing on epistemic virtues, vigilance, rules, and developing internet and social media navigation skills. The section also highlights how individuals, groups, and institutions can tailor human reason and rationality toward positive epistemological ends. Lastly, section 8 briefly refutes M&S and Johnathan Haidt’s reductionist claims that individuals are only motivated to obtain knowledge and truth for self-interest and to improve their social reputation. Their premise severely undermines the possibility of trustworthy objective knowledge and neglects other motivating forces and the human emotional relationship towards knowledge and truth. By arguing that humans are solely motivated by their reputation, M&S and Haidt not only unsatisfactorily narrow the complexity of human experience but also subvert the audience’s confidence in their theory with their own argument